In the loading and off-loading of trucks, more specifically, tractor-trailer trucks, it is desirable to simultaneously seal the area between vehicle, terminal dock and/or shelter, against inclement weather. Likewise, it is important to provide such a combined dock seal and shelter as will be able to withstand substantial wind, weather and vehicular abuse. Accordingly, the present invention is adapted to provide at a given warehouse or building dock, a protective unit that presents a weather-resistant seal between truck/trailer and dock when the rear doors of the truck/trailer are open and parallel to sides of the vehicle. It is desirable then that such a dock shelter not only permits complete and unobstructed trailer access, but also provides outstanding weather protection.
Every time one opens a warehouse-loading door to gain access to a tractor-trailer, there is an exchange of inside and outside air that causes building energy loss. With an open, unsealed 8'.times.8' loading door, this may currently cost some thousands of dollars a year per door in heating energy loss, and in excess of a thousand dollars a year per door in air conditioning energy loss.
A conventional terminal building usually has multiple dock doors with appropriate vehicle bumpers below the dock. The building doors may have no side frames, the respective door openings simply comprising a loading-unloading cavity in the wall, with or without a vertically sliding door. It is to such building docks that the present invention applies.